It is assumed that the apparent calm on the campuses of these minority institutions is beguiling and nothing significant being contributed contemplated by these institutions.

Even uploading a photograph on the net by anybody is enough
a cause for future harassment. This is true to form. Even if teachers or
students ask for better infrastructure and improvement in working conditions,
the same set of authorities was dissolutely agitated.

In
Focus

A scene can be created against such voices. Authorities are
always ready to silent such voices. In most of the cases, authorities have no
rational. Teachers were harassed even for writing some article that was not
liked by the authorities, even some face dismissal. They use these minority
institutions as their private property.

Come now to the direct threat: the ghost of autonomy. The
people who control the minority institutions argue vehemently in favour of
autonomy. But every progressive move by teachers, universities, UGC and HRD was
damned and rejected as an assault on the minority character of the institution.
They want all the rights but they are not ready to give any right to students
and teachers. Even reservation to SC, ST and OBC, etc., is not implemented by
so many minority institutions. Even the same phalanx damns the idea of
secularism, social justice, debate and discussion.

They like a nation within the nation, separate islands
controlled by the dictatorship. It is frightening that to the ruling band on
minority character means to license and the unfettered rights and privileges as
they please! They want all the autonomy to them but zero autonomy to teachers
and students.

Complete freedom to rule-administrative, finance, academic,
appointments, admissions…but no freedom to others. Even teachers have to write
and publish an article according to their whims and fancies. A big no to
academic freedom, but freedom is such a bad idea that they don't want to give
any iota of freedom to others. That should compel us to think about the idea of
minority institutions in a secular and democratic nation.

The problem with freedom is that they do not want any
responsibility. Even the audit by the constitutional authorities is not
appreciated by them. They even do not follow the guidelines about the minimum
academic qualifications. Even people from administrative services, police
services, army, church, gurudwara etc., were appointed as the Vice-Chancellors,
principals and chairmen.

Academic freedom – the freedom to design their own courses,
conduct their own examinations (degrees, mark sheets), appointment and
admissions – is loved by them but they hate to give freedom to teachers who
fear that this could infringe upon their minority rights. Even any national test
for appointment and admissions is abhorred by them.

The semester system, CSIR-UGC JRF/NET Exam, National
Eligibility cum Entrance Test- NEET, are resisted tooth and nail, for the very
same reason. Life is no better in autonomous colleges. The agitated teachers
are very well informed that there are nearly 500 autonomous institutions in
India already and about the working conditions there. In Kerala alone, there
are at least a dozen autonomous colleges. Affiliated and constituent colleges
are far ahead of them. Teachers are surprised; some taken aback, to see the
workings of affiliated undergraduate colleges. Many autonomous colleges and
minority institutions have postgraduate, MPhil and doctoral programmes,
professional courses, etc. But the standard is very poor in comparison of
University of Delhi (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Allahabad
University, IITs etc.

The workings of the autonomous institutions and minority
institutions can be compared with the madrasas. They are run on public money
but the administration is controlled by Churches, Maulanas, Gurudwaras or the
clergies. Politics of vote banks is to blame for this but students, teachers
and nation have to suffer. They are now an absolute disgrace in the 21st
century.

Each time examinations are conducted, evaluations done and
results announced, one can hear innumerable tales of corruption and nepotism in
the media and all complain bitterly against the shoddy arbitrariness inherent
in the system of autonomous and minority institutions. A few years back in an
entrance test conducted for the admission for medical admissions (MBBS), for a
minority character university, almost 90 per cent of pass students were from a
centre alone.

Media reports are enough to prove that the interests of our
students and teachers suffer in such institutions. Complaints about
malpractices in exams, the substandard syllabi formulated and imposed by the
un-academic power groups on the institutions have been heard far too often.

Now, again such elements emerge from the woods to hound the
teachers. Not everyone speaks against them. About 90 per cent of the faculty
members and students suffer silently. Hardly 10 per cent gather the courage to
speak. But if any power czar of them is called separately and asked on the
grounds for their informed and principled support, one can see the fun.

Secularism is not the creation of a private mind. Nor is it
a conspiracy hatched by a group. Studies done by the independent body world
over came to the conclusion that standards of education will improve only if educational
institutions are liberated from the stranglehold of caste, religion and private
regulatory bodies. Regulatory authorities were established to standardise and
upgrade the quality of education but not to establish caste and communal
institutions which have become, instead, huge hindrances. Dissent of teachers
and students, debate and discussions are justifiable for improving education.

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